In the U.S.
In early 1939, the Aldingtons returned to the U.S., initially to New York City. Although Aldington sought a position at several universities, he was unsuccessful, although he did deliver a series of lectures at Columbia University, as well as at Harvard, Wellesley, and Wesleyan Universities.
Viking commissioned Aldington to prepare an anthology of poems, The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking World (1941). He returned to Old Lyme to be near the Yale libraries as he worked on the Viking anthology, and then moved to Washington, D.C., to be near the Library of Congress. In 1941, Aldington completed his anthology and moved to a house on the beach in Nokomis, Florida, where the Aldingtons stayed for 18 months. While in Florida, he worked on his biography of the Duke of Wellington.
Once he had completed The Duke, Aldington drove from Florida to Los Angeles where he worked as a screenwriter. Unfortunately, none of the scripts that he worked on were filmed. Aldington was also retained by Encyclopedia Britannica to prepare another anthology of poetry of the Western world and worked on this for a number of years. A draft was delivered but never published.
Richard Aldington
Review of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 163, No. 6, June 1939
New York, 1939
Aldington had been in touch with Joyce since extracts from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man were printed in The Egoist in 1914, and was a strong admirer of Ulysses. He maintained the relationship after moving to Paris. Aldington’s review of Finnegans Wake, however, is merciless. He refers to the book as “628 pages of pedantic nonsense,” and suggests that its sales would be improved by its translation into native Tasmanian.
Richard Aldington
“Farewell to Europe. The Story of a Man of Letters”
The Atlantic Monthly, Vol.166, No.4, October, 1939
New York, 1939
Extracts from Aldington’s memoirs were first published in four installments in the Atlantic Monthly from September-December 1939. Aldington was paid the then-substantial fee of $1,000 per installment. Aldington’s memoirs were published in 1941 under the title Life For Life’s Sake (Viking Press, New York).
Richard Aldington
Life For Life’s Sake
New York, The Viking Press, 1941
This copy has a letter from Aldington pasted in. It is a response to a letter from an admirer, who Aldington thanks for the comment that the memoir was well-written, stating that he “thought so myself”. Life for Life’s Sake was not published in the U.K. until 1968, six years after Aldington’s death, in part, according to a note from the publisher Desmond Flower, due to a prejudice in the U.K. against people who sat out WWII overseas.
Richard Aldington
“Poetry from a New Mexico Shack”
Story Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 100, March 1943,
New York, 1943
In this wide-ranging article—written at the ranch in New Mexico which was then the home of Frieda Lawrence, D.H. Lawrence’s widow — Aldington reflects on Lawrence’s poetry, the difficulty of preparing representative anthologies of poetry and the criticism of poetry.
Richard Aldington
A Dream in the Luxembourg
London, William Heinemann, 1939
Inscribed by Aldington “To Bob, Try and film this!!! Dick A, xi I xxxii”. Presumably a comment by Aldington on the limits that a screen writer may face in converting a book into a screenplay. In 1942, Aldington and his family moved to Hollywood, California, where Aldington worked as a screenwriter until 1946.
John E. Reed
Signed publicity photograph of Aldington
Hollywood, John E. Reed, 1946
John E. Reed was a leading portrait photographer in Hollywood and had his studio on Sunset Boulevard, not far from Aldington’s own apartment at 8439 Sunset Boulevard. This portrait was made shortly before Aldington’s departure from the U.S. in August 1946.
Folgore de San Gemignano, Richard Aldington (Translator)
A Wreath for San Gemignano
Illustrations by Netta Aldington
New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1945
It had been reported that San Gemignano had been badly damaged during World War II (it was actually substantially spared) and Aldington’s introduction reflects on the impact of WWII on San Gemignano as he remembered it. Aldington’s translation had originally been published by The Clerk’s Press in 1917 under the title The Garland of the Months.
This copy is signed by Aldington and Netta Aldington.
